Poster for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie sparks memes

Last month, we saw realistic (and somewhat terrifying) versions of our favorite animated Pokémon characters in the trailer for the upcoming Detective Pikachu film. Now we’re about to find out what Sonic the Hedgehog will look like in a new live-action film.

IGN revealed the first look at the 2019 Sonic the Hedgehog film today. There isn’t much to see—just a poster with a silhouette of the Sega character ready to sprint into action—but it was enough to spark jokes and memes.

Those familiar with Sonic’s overall look might notice some subtle, offputting differences between the video game character and the version that appears in the poster, including a surprisingly toned musculature and a face that looks a bit angular.

For some fans, it’s all about Sonic’s body shape. Like a lot of cartoon or video game characters, many of Sonic’s features are exaggerated or minimized in order to accentuate certain aspects of his body and attitude.

There’s also the eyes. In the games and cartoons, Sonic typically has one big eye-hole that bridges over his nose. It’s the kind of silly anime-esque thing you’d expect, but it works, and one imagines it makes it easier to animate his expressions. Judging from the live-action movie poster, though, Sonic’s eyes might be smaller.

Wait is that Sonic’s eye right there? See the green? Are they giving him actual hedgehog eyes colored green?? 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Ob2w6u2IgS

Even in IGN’s first look at the movie, executive producer Tim Miller (who also directed Deadpool) said the eyes were one of the hardest things to nail down.

“I don’t think SEGA was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It’s going to look weird if we don’t do this.’ But everything is a discussion, and that’s kind of the goal, which is to only change what’s necessary and stay true to the rest of it,” Miller said to IGN. “He’s not going to feel like a Pixar character would because I don’t think that’s the right aesthetic to make it feel like part of our world.”

Joseph Knoop is a gaming writer for Daily Dot, a native Chicagoan, and a slave to all things Overwatch. He co-founded the college geek culture outlet ByteBSU, then interned at Game Informer, and now writes for a bunch websites his parents have never heard of.